88o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 10, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S TAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet. 
Mrs. K. T. Hoyle, 
J- Associates. 
John J Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04. 
equal to 8s. Od., or 8Vfc marks, or lOifc francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement: in this paper is 
backed by a responsible person. But to make doubly sure 
we will make good any loss to paid subscribers sustained 
by trusting any deliberate swindler advertising in our col¬ 
umns, and any such swindler will be publicly exposed. We 
protect subscribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
to adjust trifling differences between subscribers and honest, 
responsible advertisers. Neither will we be responsible for 
the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to u's within one 
month of the time of the transaction, and you must have 
mentioned The Rural New-Yorker when writing the adver¬ 
tiser. 
Name and address of sender, and what the remittance 
is for, should appear in every letter. 
Remittances may be made in money order, express order, 
personal check or bank draft. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1094. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
In order to introduce The R. N.-Y. to progressive 
intelligent farmers who do not now take it, we send it 
10 weeks for 10 cents for strictly introductory purposes. 
\Ve depend on our old friends to make this known to 
neighbors and friends. 
* 
THE PRIZE PHOTOGRAPHS. 
T N the last contest prizes were assigned as follows: 
Cora J. Sheppard, Cumberland Co., N. J. 
Geo. H. Lamberson, Multnomah Co., Oregon. 
Grace Mounts, Warren Co., Ohio. 
* 
The price of wire and nails has been advanced 10 
per cent by the manufacturers. This means an increase 
of $2 per ton to dealers, and evidently more than that to 
consumers. Higher prices for all classes of hardware 
goods are expected in January. Will the quality of the 
wire be improved? Not a bit. Farmers will be ex¬ 
pected to pay more money for the fun of seeing the wire 
fence rust in a few years. What are you going to do 
about it ? Try to get the experiment stations to tell us 
how to buy good wire! 
* 
The indications are that there will be more fertilizer 
questions than ever before this season. We suggest that 
all readers, before figuring on the value of mixed fer¬ 
tilizers, find what they can buy muriate of potash, acid 
phosphate and nitrate of soda for. Each of these sub¬ 
stances supplies one element only, and the prices charged 
for them will give the best basis for figuring the value 
of mixed goods. If we know what a pound of potash, 
nitrogen or phosphoric acid will cost when bought by 
itself we can know what the price ought to be when all 
or two are mixed together. 
* 
Here is a humiliating statement credited to Dr. Gor¬ 
don K. Dickensen, President of the Jersey City Health 
Board 
We have clone our best as city officials, charged with the 
care of the health of the city, fo prevent unscrupulous 
dealers from doctoring their milk with formaldehyde to 
preserve it. We find it impossible to secure juries that will 
punish dealers who sell milk not up to the standard. For 
the present, at least, we will drop the crusade against impure 
milk and permit people to drink it if they want it. 
There is great need of missionary work in Jersey 
City. Formaldehyde is used for killing the scab germs 
in potatoes, and also for embalming fluid. The aver¬ 
age juryman doesn’t see any harm in putting such stuff 
into milk! Such men are incapable of absorbing any 
form of education yet devised ! 
* 
What could be clearer than the remarks on limoid 
and kerosene by Prof. Close on page 874? We give 
all the information we can regarding this new combi¬ 
nation for fighting the San Jose scale. The lime and 
sulphur wash is satisfactory to many fruit growers, 
while others condemn it. Where it can be prepared on 
a large scale with steam heat for boiling it seems to 
have done the business. Probably few of these large 
growers will care to abandon lime and sulphur. At 
the same time we hope they will try the K.-L. mixtures 
on at least a few trees for comparison. Everybody 
knows that kerosene is an effective remedy for scale 
insects. The trouble has been to use it effectively. The 
mechanical mixture of the oil and water is not sure. 
Even where the mixture is a safe one the oil is likely 
to evaporate before the scales are killed. Much the 
same is true of kerosene emulsion, but the limoid forms 
a coating which holds the kerosene long enough to do 
its work. I lie mixture can be easily made by anyone 
who has a barrel and a hoe or small pump. It is, we 
feel sure, promising enough to warrant a fair trial by 
all who have spraying to do. We shall, of course, con¬ 
tinue to give the latest information regarding lime and 
sulphur. Caustic soda, for which so much was prom¬ 
ised, does not seem to prove satisfactory. 
* 
We receive letters asking about the various con¬ 
cerns which offer to sell “cultures” for inoculating soil. 
As readers know, the Department of Agriculture offers 
to send these cultures free. Private parties now offer to 
sell a supply sufficient for an acre of soil for $2. It 
does not appear that there is any fraud about this. The 
Agricultural Department has given information to these 
parties, but has not yet examined their cultures, and is 
in no way responsible for them. All the Department 
seeks to do is to distribute small quantities for the 
sake of creating interest in the matter. The commercial 
side may well be taken up by outsiders, provided the 
cultures are properly prepared. The fact is some people 
will pay $2 for these cultures who would never take 
them as a gift. 
* 
Once in a while a farmer writes a sneering letter 
about the plan of inoculating soil with bacteria. Such 
men ask if the Government plan of sending “cultures” 
to be used on seed or soil is not nonsense! No—there 
is no nonsense about it, but the plainest sort of sense 
where one comes to understand the principle of it. We 
have used the cultures on Alfalfa, and have imported 
soil for Soy beans. Comparison of plants and crops 
seems to satisfy all who see them that inoculation has 
produced larger and better plants. It is quite natural 
that some of our scientific men should be so hopeful 
over the work of these bacteria that thpv claim too 
much for them. Practical men will test the theories 
on a bread-and-butter basis, and such testing will, we 
firmly believe, result in giving a thicker smear of but¬ 
ter on the bread. 
* 
The last report of the Secretary of Agriculture is one 
of the strongest and most interesting documents ever 
sent from Washington. It is astonishing to read what 
the Department has planned in the way of useful work. 
During 1904 the farms of America produced crops valued 
at nearly $5,000,000,000! Secretary Wilson states that 
during the past two years the farmers of this country 
have produced in wealth a greater value than all the 
gold that has been dug since Columbus discovered 
America. This year’s crop is worth six times as much 
as the capital stock of all National banks, and three 
times the gross earnings of all railroads. After real¬ 
izing what this means the thought naturally comes— 
what share of this vast sum did the farmers themselves 
obtain, and what proportion of it went to provide for 
those who handled and made the products over? Amer¬ 
ican agriculture does not gain in dignity by a display of 
its dollars alone, but by the way the dollars are divided 
and handled. 
* 
Here is a sample of letters from the West: 
A short time ago I saw something about farms for sale 
in the western part of New York which Interested me. Any 
information that you may he able to give me regarding farms 
in the East will he greatly appreciated. a. p. i>. 
Illinois. 
In the same mail was a letter from a Wisconsin dairy¬ 
man who wants to come to New England. No use talk¬ 
ing, there are many western farmers who consider this a 
good time to sell their farms at a high price, go East 
with the money and buy land at a lower figure. There 
are many farms in New York State that would suit them. 
The New York State Agricultural Department ought 
to compile a list of such farms, and have it ready for all 
who are interested. The Massachusetts Board of Agri¬ 
culture did this with good success. Why not New 
York? The answer we receive to that question is that 
there is nothing in the agricultural law authorizing such 
work, and no money has been appropriated for it. We 
hope the “agricultural law” is not made of cast iron, 
so that nothing else can be crowded into it. 
* 
The following extract is made from a statement issued 
by the Geneva Experiment Station: 
The feeder who pays out his money for feeds without 
intelligent study of the situation runs a very good chance 
of losing in the operation: and when so reliable a guide 
to selection as the bulletins of the food inspection can be 
obtained without cost from the Station (Geneva) the feeder 
is short sighted if he does not profit by the opportunity to 
learn the grade and reliability of tbe goods be buys. 
That is a sensible proposition. Who doubts it ? What 
is the difference between a good feed and a bad one? 
The good one has a fair proportion of muscle-making 
and fat-forming elements in such condition that the 
animal can digest them. The poor feed contains a large 
amount of indigestible food and but little that is of real 
value. A farmer buys a ton of wheat bran. Tt will 
keep a cow in fair grain ration for 250 days. The 
dealer wants to be smart and mixes 1,200 pounds bran, 
•400 pounds plaster, ,'SOO pounds crushed oat hulls and 200 
pounds fine sawdust and sells it for a ton of bran. This 
ton will only provide the grain ration for the cow for 
150 days. What we may call the feeding life of the 
bogus ton is only 00 per cent of that of the true ton. 
The stations do good service when they detect the bogus 
ton and show us plainly why it is inferior. While not 
a sure protection for the farmer, it gives him a meas¬ 
ure of protection because he is able to tell the good 
from the evil. Now, for every dollar that is lost 
through the purchase of inferior feed, farmers lose 
$5 in buying fence wire. We can find on many farms 
fences that were put up 12 or 15 years ago, and still 
serviceable. Close to them will be found other fences 
erected five years ago, or even later, which have simply 
rotted away. The ton of bogus bran had only 60 per 
cent of the feeding life of the true sample. The mod¬ 
ern wire has barely 40 per cent of the life of the old- 
fashioned kind. Why did the old wire outlive the new? 
It was carefully made, in the first place, of iron or good 
steel. It was then “galvanized” by treating it electrically 
with zinc or dipping it in melted zinc. That made a 
wire which resisted the elements. It is believed that 
modern wire is often made of inferior steel, and in¬ 
stead of being “galvanized” with zinc is merely dipped 
in lead or pewter. It can no more take the place of 
the old wire than the mixture of bran, sawdust, etc., 
can take the place of the pure bran. When a dealer or 
a farmer is buying a carload of feed he can send a 
sample to the experiment station and have it analyzed. 
1 Inis lie knows just what lie is doing. When he buys 
wire he must simply take the risk. It would be a com¬ 
paratively easy matter for a chemist to tell him whether 
the metal was iron or high-grade steel, or whether 
the coating was useful zinc or useless lead and pewter. 
In some cases, where large lots of wire or pipe were 
bought, chemists were hired at private expense to sam¬ 
ple the metal. Such tests saved the buyers large sums 
of money. Not a pound of wire should be sold to 
farmers that has not been tested in this way—as fer¬ 
tilizers are tested. There is another reason why the 
stations ought to do this work. Wire-making is now in 
the hands of a monopoly or trust. We are told by those 
who are obliged to buy large quantities of this wire 
that they cannot get a first-class quality at any price. 
They are informed that they can take what is offered 
them or go without. The trust feels secure in the belief 
that farmers do not know the difference between good 
wire and bad, and therefore can make only a general 
complaint. Suppose the stations went to work patiently 
to collect samples of wire, tested them, and then pub¬ 
lished the results of their investigations with the names 
of the manufacturers and dealers. Do they not see what 
the result would be? They would establish in this way 
a standard of quality for good wire, just as they have 
for fertilizers and feed. As a result of this wire would 
have to be sold on the basis of quality or not at all. 
BREVITIES. 
The ifs will but in to many an answer. 
What has become of the “boom" for Soy beans? 
Is beet sugar growing in New York a dead beet? 
IIow do you do it, and why? That is the outline for a 
helpful farm article. 
Dampness is one of the worst troubles of poultry keepers. 
Sunshine is sure cure. 
• 
Some people go hunting for an honest man. Suppose 
they make sure of themselves first of all! 
It takes a strong man to pack dollars in his pocketbook 
and not unpack the spirit from his purpose. 
Since the articles on “Seedless apples" were printed we 
have heard from several more. They were all found in 
pastures or fence rows. 
People are beginning to talk about skunk farming again. 
We shall yet have some one offering to sell shares of stock in 
a skunk farm corporation. 
Farmers do not bite at every hook nowadays. Some¬ 
times they put their feet on the hook, and either break the 
line or pull tlie fisherman in. 
Have practical men ever tried the plan of making a spe¬ 
cial lied for seeding Alfalfa—described on page 870? If 
poorer soil were used it seems to us that the plan would 
give good results. 
The Bureau of Forestry, at its new experiment stations in 
Wisconsin aud Michigan, will make seasoning tests of cedar 
and tamarack telephone and telegraph poles that have been 
submerged for varying lengths of time. 
We like to hear the cows calling for their milker, and 
looking around waiting for him to begin. It means they 
have full udders and expect to be relieved in a gentle man¬ 
ner : otherwise they would not greet you in such a pleasant 
way. 
According to the statistics collected during the past 23 
years by the Chicago Tribune, there are at present four 
and a half times as many murders and homicides in propor¬ 
tion to population in the United States as there were in 
1881. 
With cornmeal retailing at $1.40 per 100 pounds we 
do not see how a dairyman can have the nerve to take home 
this stuff and look into a cow’s face and ask her to make 
economical milk out of it. A good cow will do her best, 
but don’t ask too much of her. 
